


and i must become a lionhearted girl

by clizzyhours



Category: Shadowhunters
Genre: But not quite, Dark!Clary, Different Worlds, F/F, Flower Symbolism, Prompt: flowers, Violence, WELL THEY ARE GETTING THERE, aline and her sword, creature!clary, disturbing imagery mayhaps, enemies to friends/lovers/allies, flower symbolism whoo, frayhallow, god like clary, hunter!aline, soldier!aline
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:21:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21826618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clizzyhours/pseuds/clizzyhours
Summary: Aline is a well-prepared soldier who is sent on a mission to kill a secretive creature but isn’t prepared for what she finds.—or hunter!aline, creature!clary and interesting dynamics.
Relationships: Clary Fray/Aline Penhallow
Comments: 4
Kudos: 7
Collections: shadowhunters sapphic ficathon





	and i must become a lionhearted girl

**Author's Note:**

> warnings: violence. disturbing imagery. weirdness to an extent.
> 
> for the sapph fic a thon. prompt: flowers 
> 
> thank you so much and please enjoy!

Roses no longer bloom.

The creature breathes and treks.

Everything is endless, skeletal trees primed like a ferocious guard. The grass is like shards and plants bare their nonexistent teeth.

Every step is calculated, footsteps lithe and shadowy. She immerses herself in the dark, her silver sword gleaming in the moonlight, preparing for her fatal strike.

She’s a Penhallow — what else would you expect? 

Perfect precision and calculation. They don’t do actions by halves but they swallow them whole. Her mother would skin her alive otherwise.

Aline creeps forward, dark eyes scanning the dark hallows.

Irises curl like dead vines and the ground is rough like ash, once dewy and vibrant. 

No more life, she thinks.

She’s Nowhere and everywhere at once. 

The world veers and the dimension shifts. 

Aline remembers.

She’s standing outside the heavy doors, awaiting penance. 

You have a mission, the Board had stated, her mother leading hell in high heels. 

Aline stands at attention.

Find the creature in five days, they say, or we will lose everything, her mother’s eyes say, flashing warningly.

They dissipate like ghosts and she’s left alone in the cold hallway with her mother. 

It’s dangerous, Jia warns, her eyes stern but lips quirked in an almost soft smile. But not quite. You cannot describe her mother as soft. She is not soft - she’s everything but soft.

We’re dangerous, Aline says as Jia nods approvingly.

Like herself. Sometimes she wants to be more than that but she could and would never say that out-loud.

Not to her mother, not to the Board, and not to herself.

Aline Penhallow is not soft and Penhallow’s do not frighten, do not tremble in anything.

Fear is a construct, her mother had said in the same breath.

Do not let fear guide you.

Aline vows to her mother. I do not, I will not, and her mother appraises her.

She’s pleased.

“You’re ready,” Jia says and Aline nods.

Mission forward. Sword at her back and knowledge tucked away in her heart, mind, and soul.

And so she goes forth.

—

The dimension is cold as Aline ventures, her canteen and pack nestled by her side as she crouches over the rushing stream.

Birds do not circle the sky and animals remain hidden. Crickets do not chirp and squirrels and rabbits do not scurry. The planets near the water source are wilted, curdling like day old milk.

The sky is light and so endless but it’s dangerous.

It’s an omen in so many ways.

She knows this.

Aline has been in this dimension, this world, unique and horrifying at once, for a period of three days.

Her time is imminent, her time is running out.

Find the creature, kill the creature, and get out.

It should be that easy but it’s not. 

Frustration coils inside of her and Aline resists the urge to scream. Penhallows do not react, she tells herself.

You’re a soldier. You do what you must.

She must regardless of her inner wishes and desires.

She breathes once, splashes cold water across her face.

Her mind thins and Aline straightens again.

And so she goes forward.

Sharp eyes follow her movement but she does not see.

The creature, the person, the individual lurks. A monster made woman. Her teeth are sharp around her petal pink lips and her green eyes shine brightly, too brightly like the sun. 

I will not let her see until I want her too see.

And what would you show her? What will you?

And so the creature follows.

—

Tracking comes easily to Aline but this creature does not.

She measures petals and counts trees and treks across land, hunting for evident clues and obscured hints. 

The creature is cunning, Aline thinks to herself, her hand grasping her sword steadily.

There’s no sun in the sky - only endless light and vast space. Sweltering isn’t an option but her body certainly feels something humid wises. She blames the all-black ensemble she’s wearing and the amount of hiking she has done.

The world and dimension in one is still, isolated ice. Flowers are trapped under rocks and pebbles, fragments jagged.

Aline does not know what to make out of this dead world, wilting flowers and drooling plants. 

Too still, she thinks distantly. Her heartbeat is a loud drum. 

Her sword is prepared, her hand steady, and she senses an immediate urgency.

The stillness breaks and like a sudden earthquake, the ground trembles and shakes and Aline is thrown backwards.

This is new, Aline hysterically laughs.

Rocks and pebbles are flying outwards and life is forced to adjust to abrupt shakiness.

It’s madness come to life. And somewhere the woman made monster smiles with bloody teeth.

Aline digs her sword into the ground and holds on with all her might. Her booted feet are pressing against the shaking ground and she feels like a loose tether.

The skeletal trees shake and the world veers, shaping again.

A distant roaring noise and Aline shakes her head, holding fiercely onto her sword cutting a hole in the dirt.

The ground does not stop trembling and she thinks distantly of dinosaurs. The sound is loud and roaring and it’s an almost scream.

A warning.

Aline holds on and on and on.

Come for me, she thinks and somewhere the creature is prepared for chaos unleashed.

The ground suddenly stops shaking, the aftermath stilling instantly. Rock and pebbles flung and trees bent inwards. 

And so Aline gets up, dusts dirt and speckled grime, and stands tall.

Penhallows do not bow.

We do not break down.

Fear does not come easily to her but oh, a tiny part of her is afraid.

Do not fail me, do not fail this family, her mother would say.

Would warn.

The noise is impeccably loud and the world shakes with it.

Fear is lit like a fuse and all her instincts warn her to run.

Her mother screams fight.

And so the lurking voice speaks up. Makes herself known. “Run, you foolish mortal! Run!”

And so the decision is made for her, a hand with intricate marks pulling her like she is weightless, like she’s nothing but gravity. And so they run together.

Her mother would scream and Aline would face penance but fear makes fools out of us all.

And so they run, Aline astride with the woman made creature, together.

—

They run until the sound is far, far away even as this world shifts around them, transforming and changing form like nothing.

Time is ticking away but Aline needs a moment to gather her breath and inquire - no, interrogate her savior, no, enemy.

Aline does not realize they are still holding hands until they are on the outskirts of an enormous cavern, the creature sparking immense fire in her hands.

She breaks away and turns around, a hint of blush creeping on her cheeks.

And so they stand, Aline near the cold cavern wall and the creature who melts seamlessly with the shadows.

Aline slowly turns around and braces herself, her sword positioned in front of her, her stance protective, on guard.

You are a Penhallow after all.

Marks cover her skin - strange symbols that Aline does not recognize. 

She narrows her eyes but before she say anything, the creature speaks.

“Who are you?” The voice sings out and Aline is reminded of bells, of dangling windchimes in the wind.

Her voice is eerie akin to chalk on a board. 

It’s a paradox.

It makes Aline want to cover her ears. 

It makes Aline want to carve the ghastly voice out.

It makes Aline flustered in a way she does not understand.

The creature laughs at Aline’s instinctive reaction and her voice almost softens to something akin to bearable.

“I forgot how fragile mortals are,” She says, her red hair spiraling endlessly into the shadows that flock her.

She stares piercingly. “Now who are you and why are you in my domain?” 

Aline cannot help the spark of anger unfurling inside. 

“I should be the one asking you that!” 

Aline grabs a knife from her thigh holster and aims for the creature’s heart.

The creature moves, shifts and the knife clatters onto the ground like it’s nothing, dissolving into a blacken rose. Shadows surround her and the essence of decay echos the atmosphere.

“And what makes you say that?” 

Aline glares and dances with excellent skills, moving with the shadows. The monster made woman looks at her amusedly, even allowing her to aim her sword at the creature’s bare Marked throat.

Her sword pieces the throat but the creatures laughs. It’s scathing and unkind.

“Do you really think that your mortal sword can do anything to me?” She murmurs, her bright, bright green eyes staring into Aline’s eyes.

“I can certainly try,” Aline bares her teeth.

“You’re a fierce one, aren’t you,” She says, taking a deeper look inside of her, of Aline.

Aline feels exposed and wants to clamp down on the urge to give the creature any form of satisfaction.

“Who are you?” She finds herself blurting, Aline staring at the bright green eyes, the blunt teeth, the Marks in intricate runes and symbols, something almost biblical.

Something unholy.

“I am Clarissa; the devourer. I make the world.”

What, Aline thinks flatly.

She wasn’t warned about this, about this nuisance.

Aline grits her teeth. “Really, the devourer?” She snipes.

Clarissa’s eyes flash darkly. “Do not toy with me mortal.”

“Do not call me a mere mortal or a mortal. I have a name,” Aline hisses.

Her mother would be screaming. Do not tell the enemy your name. Do not engage. Kill. Strike the heart. Aim for the spine or neck or anything, ALINE!

But her mother isn’t here and Aline has always been an inquisitive girl, a curious woman who has always yearned for too much.

She’s a soldier, yes, but Aline is also just a girl.

A woman.

She has always wanted more than what her mother gives her.

Has always wanted more than what the Board has directed.

You have duty, her brain swears.

You have heart, her heart murmurs.

Aline lowers her sword.

“And what is your name then!” Clarissa says, her wispy dress moving like magic as she leans to look at Aline’s face closely.

“I am Aline.”

And so Aline gives and so Clarissa takes her name willingly, given.

“What are you?” 

“I am this world and I am nothing. I simply am.”

Aline snorts. “You’re not going to give me anything else, are you?”

An almost amused tinge colors Clarissa’s face.

“Are we safe here?” Aline asks, not noticing the flowers blooming around her.

“You’re safer with me than anyone or anywhere else here,” Clarissa murmurs carefully.

“But the noise - “

“A creature. A problem I have but I am working on.”

Is that the creature Aline is meant to kill or the lovely but monstrous woman in front of her?

And so Aline ignores her mother’s warning and the Board’s instructions.

Aline bares her soul.

“What if I helped you?”

Clarissa laughs. It’s rugged but Aline can’t help but feel charmed.

She would never voice that out-loud.

“And dear Aline, how can you help me when I cannot help myself?”

Aline says, “Because you want me too.”

Because I sense a kinship in you.

“Do I?”

Yes.

Aline bares her teeth and Clarissa laughs, more delighted.

“You’re a strange one, Aline.” Clarissa sounds her name slowly, heavenly, a sin at once.

Aline does not understand this unspoken bond between them nor does she comprehend this creature, this devourer of worlds.

But oh, Aline wants to find out despite her duties. Her family. Her mission.

She wants more than what they can give.

Clarissa lights up like magic and Aline is awed.

A god, a devourer.

A world unfolded.

Aline watches and Clarissa stares like a penchant for dreams. 

“Together?” Clarissa says, hands outstretched like an offering.

And so Aline takes her hand, fingers intertwined.

Flowers envelope them and so the world shapes.

Together.


End file.
